D&D 5E When is a dark elf NOT a Dark Elf? (Mechanically and roleplaying purposes)

[hopeless]

I think I need to check out that new lore regarding the drow.

 

[Shiroiken]

I don't remember from where (XGtE?), but there are Half Elf variants you can take. The one for Drow (IIRC) gives up the 2 skills for the Drow's spell abilities. This seems like the simplest option, with the custom lineage from TCoE being the second.

 

[ccs]

Have had a character idea for quite a while and recent events led me to the decision to post this thread to find out whether I'm going about this properly.

The background for the character is that she's the product of a relationship between a half elven adventurer and a drow maiden who was using the relationship to conceive a child to sacrifice to her god.

The adventurer figured this out and was chewed out by his barely teenaged son and his own wood elven grandmother who joined him in a mission to rescue the product of that relationship.
Short story he was killed in the process along with the mother who had by that point given birth and the wood elf called in her own deity who ended up chatting with Lolth allowing the child to be rescued and the errant father's body to be recovered and cremated as per his wishes.
The child grew up mostly being raised by her half brother when their great grandmother was too busy as she was earning the money in the family by this point.

Now here's the problem.

The child might be considered half drow by birth, but she was wasn't raised in the underdark nor by drow so the usual abilities wouldn't apply as due to her actual bloodline she in essence three quarters elven and only a quarter human so if we were using Tolkien logic she would have the choice of being human or elven and chose to be elven.

So she lacks superior darkvision and thus lacks the vulnerability to sunlight due to being raised above ground she wouldn't have the weapon training of a drow or drow magic as neither were taught to her as she grew up so it sounds more and more like a half elf, but with a full elven lifespan.

How would you view this?

This isn't an attempt to min-max abilities just a background story and an attempt to reason out what racial abilities she would actually have.

So would you agree she's a half elf with a full elf lifespan or is there something else I haven't considered?

No.
At least not in games I run. She's not a pure elf. Therefore she's (mechanically) a half-elf and has the natural lifespan of such, no matter how she was raised.
You want the elven perk of living forever? Then you gotta make an elf....

 

[The Glen]

When you reveal the campaign takes place in Mystara/Hollow Earth. Then you have what is known as a Shadow Elf.

Unless he starts to smoke and then catch fire, then it's a Schattenalfen.

 

[Flamestrike]

Whatever seems right.

I was recently playing a Half-Elf (Drow) PC whos mother was Drow, and Father was a Tehyrian human, who had a Sun elf grandparent himself.

I used the Half Elf (Drow traits replacing the 2 x skills) as the baseline.

If nothing else feels right, Custom lineage is also there if you need it.